Summary:
Great Expectations is the only school in the Great Expectations district — a K–8 elementary school in Grand Marais, Minnesota serving 113 students, where 26.55% of students qualified for free or reduced lunch in 2024–2025 and the student-teacher ratio was 9.3. Because the district contains only this one school, its district-level scores and its Great Expectations school-level scores are identical in every subject, so the district's strong ranking of 46th of 458 districts (90th percentile, 5 stars) reflects this single school's results.
Reading is the clearest strength. In 2025–2026, All Grades Reading proficiency was 72.3%, compared with the Minnesota average of 48.6% — a gap of 23.7 percentage points — and every reported grade level beat the state, from 3rd grade at 60.0% to 5th grade at 100%. Math was more mixed: overall it was slightly above the state at 45.8% versus 44.9%, with 5th and 6th grades well ahead of state (58.3% vs. 41.9% and 53.8% vs. 39.5%), but 7th grade lagged at 21.4% against the state's 40.3%. Science was split in the same way — 33.3% overall versus 25.5% statewide, driven by a 5th-grade result of 63.6% against 25.9%, while 8th grade came in at 12.5% versus 16.7%.
The school also improved while state averages edged down. From 2024–2025 to 2025–2026, Math rose from 41.98% to 45.8%, Reading from 65.43% to 72.3%, and Science from 25.0% to 33.3%, even as state figures slipped slightly in all three subjects. Its school rank climbed from 438th of 881 schools (50th percentile, 3 stars) in 2023–2024 to 147th of 869 schools (83rd percentile, 4 stars) in 2025–2026. One caution for parents: with only 113 students across K–8, individual grade-level percentages rest on very small groups, so a 100% or a 12.5% can shift sharply from year to year.
Thank you for your feedback!